PATTERN SHEET 52

Suit System:

G

Recommended Name:

the Saxon pattern.

History

This pattern seems to have been developed mainly by Leipzig and Dresden
cardmakers. The earliest examples found so far are known as "Jagdsemmelkarten",
i.e. a medley of at least three different packs by Leipzig makers of the second
quarter of the 18th Century.

Around the beginning of the 18th Century the Saxon single-figure pattern
established itself in a form that we may classify as the older line or variant. It
is distinguished by an overall archaic, stern design. Very few examples were
produced through the 19th into the 20th Century, the Altenburg Schwerterkarte
being the most familiar one. Around the beginning of the 19th Century a newer
variant appeared in a modernised, almost lavish design, compared with the former.
Both variants have frontally seated Kings, Ober and Unter of civilian Status and
Daus cards with an unmistakably Saxon veneer. Typical are the huge lion on the Daus
of Acorns, with a scroll above and escutcheons below, and lovers watched by a third
party on the Daus of Hawk-Bells; the Unter of Bells holds a bird in one hand.
The pip-card illustrations display ornamental appendages: domestic animals,
fabulous monsters, biblical scenes, etc. As in every detail the newer variant is
more versatile here too. From the last quarter of the 19th Century the
double-figured version slowly but inexorably ousted the single-figured version.